Tag Info

First of all, the assertion that "With God, all things are possible" is valid and scriptural.
Matthew 19:26 (NIV)
26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
However, it would be a mistake to assume that God's omnipotence means he can act against his nature. Hebrews tells us:
...

Mainstream Christianity - Catholicism, Orthodox, and the various Protestant denominations, God doesn't have a form. He is spirit, omnipresent, and not confined to a single place. He doesn't have a form. (Although He could manifest one and speak through it, such as a burning bush...)
Of course, when He came to earth as Christ (as mainstream Christianity ...

Does God have no shape or form?
Objection 1
The book of Genesis uses these words to describe man's creation
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. (Genesis 1:26 NIV)
therefore, God must look like man.
Objection 2
Throughout the Old Testament, the Spirit of God has appeared as moving flames, columns of fire and burning bushes. Columns ...

First, define a Christian ;p It actually isn't as simple as you'd think - for example, consider the definition this site uses:
As far as the scope of this site is concerned, any group that identifies themselves as Christian are to be considered on-topic and allowed to label themselves Christian.
You would perhaps need to ask the author, but "cultural ...

There is a fundamental flaw in the logic here.
Genesis 4 clearly applies to a single person - the person who kills Cain. Generalizing this to any executioner is not supported by the text. To wit:
'Very well, then,' Yahweh replied, 'whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.'
Indeed, if it did call for that, Genesis 9:6 would be ...

Let's take a look at Paul.
The book of Acts details the spread of the Gospel from Jerusalem into wider Judea and Samaria, then off through Syria, Asia, Greece, before it concludes with Paul preaching the Gospel in the capital city of the Roman Empire. If we follow along with the way the Christians are preaching the Gospel, we find that once they start ...

Its not necessary for a person to have a religion to have good moral codes.
Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC) was a Babylonian King who gave one of the First Law in the World. The law was very similar the Mosaic Law, "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth".
Exodus 21:24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for
foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, ...

Caleb mentions some great names. C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterston are good theologian philosophers who, I think, argue a strong rational support of Christianity.
Cornelius Van Til is another good one, who, I believe, argues that apart from God, there is no rational basis for rationality. This kind of gets to Andrew Leach's comment; I don't disagree ...

You are not the first person in history to make such observations. One person who articulated it well is the late Clive Staples:
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." -- C.S. Lewis
Another man, circa the same erra and place, who argued emphatically that ...

Mainline Seminaries
I went to a very conservative seminary and read Girard's Scapegoat, though the overall position of the school disagreed with it. However, that we read it indicates its prevalence in academic institutions. Others I know who went to mainline seminaries, however, are very well versed in Girard.
In Rowan Williams' (former archbishop of ...

Regarding your first question, there is a key difference between your two examples. They would be more parallel if you framed the first one like this:
God is the most perfect possible being that can be thought of. Non-existence or a lack of regular competition in barbecuing championships would be an imperfection. Therefore, God exists and regularly ...

You're not going to find one answer on this. To some, the existence of God is self-evident, to others it's not. Then you get into "what does self-evident mean".
Some of those who say God is self-evident claim so because the complexity of creation screams "an intelligent designer made me". But that's not self-evident, it's evidence from creation.
...

Origin - Loci Communes Theologici, 1521 A.D.
The words notitia, assensus, and fiducia applied to faith originates with the Reformers of the 16th Century. Martin Luther argued that saving faith or true faith is a fides viva, a vital or living faith (Sproul, 2010, pg.47). This concept was further explicated by one of Luther's contemporaries, Philip ...

I have not heard any Christian claim this in any academic setting. The most Christians usually say about morality in this context is that without a transcendent law giver no absolute morality can be derived and that without one we are left with either a regress into subjectivity or a complete denial of morality. Or in other words if God is dead than all ...

Romans 1
From a Christian perspective, yes, the existence of God is self-evidence. Paul teaches in the book of Romans about this:
(I understand that atheists may take offense to this, but none is intended. This is just the teaching of the Bible.)
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by ...

St. Thomas Aquinas addresses this directly in the Summa.
Article 6. Whether in God there are any accidents?
I answer that, From all we have said, it is clear there can be no
accident in God.
First, because a subject is compared to its accidents as potentiality
to actuality; for a subject is in some sense made actual by its
accidents. But ...

The monotheistic position on ontology can be summarized by the first few words of the Bible:
Genesis 1:1-2 (ESV)
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Precisely what this passage means ...

St. Augustine of Hippo was influenced, and in many ways owed his conversion, to the writings of the neo-platonists.
Most Christians would accept him as the most prolific Christian philosopher of the first millennium; St. Thomas Aquinas, as his successor in the next millennium, reintroduced his wisdom in the form of the Summa Theologica; wherein you will ...

"Is it anti Christian" is a Truth question. Answering in such a way as to avoid that...
From a doctrinal or even denominational perspective, the answer is "no". Do some Christians think this way? Yes.
The author of the article does, however, quite accurately describe the mindset of certain types of individuals within more conservative, fundemantalist ...

Even when a philosophy is contrary to Christianity, it is often good to study it, so as to be able to understand what other people think. Such philosophies may also have valid points, despite some erroneous parts.
For example, Marxism, which is fundamentally incompatible with Christianity because it is explicitly materialistic and promotes a violent class ...

If God, were only transcendant, perhaps there would be something to what you're saying, But Orthodox (in the wider sense of the word) Christian teaching is that God is both transcendant (we can't know Him fully) and Immanent - he is 'close' and fully able to communicate to his creatures clearly (at least to their level of comprehension).
Orthodox ...

Taking a simple definition of love as 'desiring actual good for someone because you care for their actual happiness', we can see that love arising from faith, is different in nature to secular love. Here are some of the differences:
Faith brings light and knowledge upon what is actual good, therefore it produces the desire of true good for others. ...

Neo-Platonism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoplatonism_and_Christianity). Augustine was influenced by Neo-Platonism, as well as other Christian writers. I think you will find Neo-Platonism to be more more influential than Platonism.
I am not expert in Philosophy enough to provide my own explanation. All I can do is provide some references. From the ...

Because "good" is either a transcendent qualifier or a personal one. If it is a personal one, then it becomes meaningless, as everyone would be perfectly "good" by their own personal moral codes. If, on the other hand, it is a transcendent one, then that "good" is measured against a higher standard.
The contention is that without religion, people don't ...

The comments are quite right about an LDS viewpoint being that it hasn't been revealed yet as doctrine.
However your question is asking how God exists or when the beginning of everything was.
The problem is you are asking an infinite question with only the capability of a finite mind. Joseph Smith attempted to help our finite minds understand that of ...

@Martin.kv Good answer! I would only add Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love
God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
All things, whether good or bad, work together for good to those who love God and follow His plan for them.
Like Joseph said in Genesis 50:20 to his brothers
But as ...

The problem is known as "theodicy".
Actually, this is just one portion of the problem of theodicy, but it's part of the "How can a good God permit evil?" question. "How God could create beings that will go to Hell" is subset of the problem of theodicy.
This is one of the most commonly covered questions in the field of Apologetics. A Bing/Google/(Choose ...

I think the answer is implied in this command:
You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. (Exodus 20:4, NIV)
When we imagine God to have a form we make an idol in our mind, when we carve this image into wood or stone then we make that idol visible.
The reason why ...

When Jesus says "with God all things are possible" , he means all things that exist or or is possible to exist or is possible to happen.
All other things do not exist,
has not existed or will not happen.
So instead of saying that it is not possible for God to be not strong enough to lift any stone in this Universe, it will be simpler and equally logical ...

When you say "widely accepted Christian" belief about X, where X is some complex philosophical subject, I wonder whether you mean, "widely believed among all Christians in the world, of all educational and intellectual levels", or "widely believed by Christian scholars in the relevant field". Frankly, I'm sure there are many complex ideas in Christianity -- ...